Beihefte Der Francia Bd. 60 2005

Beihefte der Francia

Bd. 60

2005

Das Digitalisat wird Ihnen von perspectivia.net, der Online-Publi- kationsplattform der Stiftung Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland (DGIA), zur Verfügung gestellt. Bitte beachten Sie, dass das Digitalisat urheberrechtlich geschützt ist. Erlaubt ist aber das Lesen, das Ausdrucken des Textes, das Herunterladen, das Speichern der Daten auf einem eigenen Datenträger soweit die vorgenannten Handlungen ausschließlich zu privaten und nicht- kommerziellen Zwecken erfolgen. Eine darüber hinausgehende unerlaubte Verwendung, Reproduktion oder Weitergabe einzelner Inhalte oder Bilder können sowohl zivil- als auch strafrechtlich ver- folgt werden. T. C.W. BLANNING

The Grand Tour and the réception o f neo-classicis m in Great Britain in the eighteenth Century

At first sight , the relationship betwee n the Grand Tour an d neo-classicism i n Grea t Britain seems unproblematic. In the course of the eighteenth Century, both the architectural and the natural landscape were transformed in a manner which clearly reflected the influence of classical models. In what follows, I hâve adopted the définition o f neo- classicism offered b y Charles Rosen in his analysis »The classical style«, itself worthy of classic status, namely: »I hâve used >neoclassicism < in a narrow sensé of a return to the assumed simplicity of Nature through the imitation of the ancients«1, not least because it accords so well with the Earl o f Shaftesbury's deman d fo r a n art which was »chaste, sever [sic], just & accurate«2.) It can be stated with some confidence that there are more structures and spaces in Great Britain displaying a measure of classical influence than anywhere else in Europe. This is only due in part to its relative immunity to the havoc wrought o n the continent b y maraudin g armie s an d iconoclasti c régimes . The primary caus e o f the ubiquity o f houses such as Kedleston was the ubiquity o f those who commissioned them. Viscount Scarsdale, like almost every great landown- er, had been on the Grand Tour and had acquired a taste for classical aesthetics and classical artefacts. It was for Lord Scarsdale that James Stuart of Athenian Antiquities'fam e designed the tripod stands based on the tripod at the top o f the Choragic Monumen t of Lysicrates 3. For the English aristocrats (and I employ this convenient if misleading term to em- brace both peers of the realm and great landowners), the Drang nach Süden was of long standing. As Edwar d Chane y ha s recorded , th e firs t Englis h travelle r t o leav e a n account of a journey to the continent which was something approaching a Grand Tour - as opposed to a pilgrimage - wa s Sir Thomas Hoby, who visited Italy in 1549 4. But it was in the eighteenth Century that the trickle of English visitors became a flood an d then a torrent. In 1768 Baretti estimated that during the previous seventeen years, some 10 000 English people had travelled to Italy5. By 1770 one anonymous observer could

1 Charle s ROSEN , The classical style. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, revised édition, London 1976 , p. 17 2 note 1. 2 Lawrenc e KLEIN, Shaftesbury an d the culture of politeness. Moral discourse and cultural politics in ear- ly eighteenth Century England, Cambridge 1994 , p. 190. 3 Robi n MIDDLETON, David WATKIN, Neo-classical and nineteenth Century architecture, New York 1980, p.90. 4 Edwar d CHANEY, The Grand Tour and the évolution of the travel book, in: Andrew WILTON, Ilaria BIG- NAMINI (ed.), Grand Tour. The Iure of Italy in the eighteenth Century, London 1996 , p. 95. 5 Willia m Edward MEAD , The Grand Tour in the eighteenth Century, Boston, New York 1914 , p. 104. 542 T. C. W. Blanning

write: »where one Englishman travelled in the reign of the first two Georges, ten now go on a Grand Tour. Indeed, to such a pitch is the spirit of travelling corne in the king- dom that there is scarce a citizen of large fortune but takes a flying view of France, Italy, and Germany«, while Edward Gibbon opined fifteen years later that there were 40 000 English travelling on the continent (although this must hâve been a guess and was almost certainly an over-estimate)6. Italy and its classical world was the preferred desti - nation. Obliged of necessity to travel through France and usually also Switzerland, and occasionally prepared to make a détour to the courts of Germany and Vienna, the great majority o f English grand tourists had Italy in their sights. As Dr Samuel Johnson observed: Sir, a man who bas not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see. The grand object of travelling is to see the shores ofthe Mediterrane an1'. Indeed, it was his own opinion that ail our religion, ail our arts, almost ail that sets us above savages, bas corne from the shores of the Mediterraneans. Joh n Northall agreed: Italy, thus enriched by nature and adorned by art, is therefore justly esteemed the most agreeable and most usefulpart of Europe to a lover of antiquity, and thepolite arts and sciences; nor is it stränge that it should be much frequented by foreigners of taste in this learned and refined âge. H e himself had gone because he considered a tour o f Italy the finishingpart of apolite éducation*. Alas, the behaviour o f some English grand tourists suggested that they were badly in need of classical polish. In an imaginary dialogue with John Locke, Richard Hurd . made the Earl of Shaftesbury observ e that it was highly désirable that young English gentlemen should be encouraged to look beyond their own foggy air, and dirty acres. In his view, they were gauche and uncouth in social intercourse, retaining far too much of their Saxon or Norman antécédents , and taking an interest only in hunting, horse racing, eating, drinking and low wenching. Th e two English universities could not sup- ply the necessary polish, for their religion is Intolérance^ and their Morals, Servility, s o a continenta l tou r was essential10. Fo r mos t youn g Englishmen , thei r continenta l sojourn was indeed a Substitute for a university éducation, so it was small wonder that their transition to adulthood was marked by rites of passage which had more to do with hedonism than with classica l learning. A disgusted Lad y Hertford complaine d fro m Florence in the middle of the Century: most of our travelling youth neither improve themselves, nor credit their country 11. Th e eas y availability of alcoholi c an d sexual diversion proved too much o f a temptation for many , especially i f - as in the case of William Beckford - their tastes were irregulär. James Boswell wrote to none other than Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1765:

6 Christophe r HIBBERT, The Grand Tour, London 1969 , p. 24-25. 7 Ibid . p. 10. 8 Cesare d e SETA , Grand tour : the Iure of Italy in the eighteenth Century , in: WILTON, BIGNAMIN I (se e note 4) p. 13. 9 John NORTHALL, Travels through Italy. Containing new and curious observations on that country, Lon- don 1766 , unpaginated préface . 10 Richard HURD, Dialogues on the uses of f oreign travel; considered as part of an English gentleman's éd- ucation: between Lord Shaftesbury an d Mr Locke, London 1764 , p. 39-45. 11 Quoted i n William BECKFORD, The Grand Tour o f William Beckford, ed . by Elizabeth MAVOR , Har- mondsworth 1986 , p. 10. The Grand Tour and the réception o f neo-classicis m 543

/ must admit that in the midst ofmy Roman studies I indulged in sensual relax- ations. I sallied forth of an evening like an imperious lion, and I had a Unie French painter, ayoungacademician, alwaysvain, always alert, alwaysgay, who served as my jackal. I remembered the rakish deeds of Horace and other amorous Roman poets, and I thought that one might wellallow one's self a little indulgence in a city where there areprostitutes licensed by the Cardinal Vicar ... / was, however, brought to a hait by an unpleasant occurrence which ail libertines hâve to reckon with. When we walked in your room, disputing about the commerce of the sexes, y ou said to me with a smile, »Watch out for Italian girls -for several reasons.« I discovered at Rome that your advice was very sound12.

The English travellers also acquired the réputation o f rushing from one tourist site to another, very much in the manner of the stereotypical American tourist of the present- day - >if it's Tuesday, it must be Rome<. Thomas Cogan complained o f them: Should their road lead through Paradise itself or should they hâve taken a long and tedious journey expressly to see the garden ofEden, it is a question whether our impetuous gentlemen would not tip the post-boy half a crown extraordinary to mend hispace, as they were driving through it u. Mor e abrasive still was the verdict of Dupaty: In a hundred there are not two that seek to instruct themselves. To cover leagues on land or on wa- ter; to take punch and tea at inns; to speak ill of ail the other nations, and to boast without ceasing of their own; that is what the crowd ofthe English call travelling. Thepost- book is the only one in which they instruct themselves, althoug h it should be borne in mind that this sour verdict derived from a Frenchman14. That the Grand Tour was con- ducted for reasons that were as much representational or recreational a s educational, is difficult t o deny. This was reflected i n the very numerous portraits o f British grand tourists painted in Rome and transported home as a suitable souvenir and to serve as a reminder to visitors of the stately home o f the good breeding and culture of the patron. As Dupaty observed - and innumerable other foreign commentator s confirme d - the British were incorrigibly addicted to denigrating foreigners an d their culture an d to puffing their own. This sort of insularity was given unsurpassed artistic expression by William Hogarth in his celebrated painting »The Gate of Calais, or Oh! The roast beef of Old England«, also published a s a hugely successfu l engravin g in 1749. Ho- garth himself gav e his own comment on this scène:

Thefirst time an Englishman goesfrom Dover to Calais, he must be Struck with the indifferent face ofthings at so little distance, afarcicalpomp ofwar,pompous parade of religion, and much bustle with little business. To sum up ail, poverty, slavery, and innate insolence, covered with the affection of politeness, give you hère a true picture ofthe manners ofthe whole nation 15.

12 Frank BRADY (ed.), Boswell on the Grand Tour: Italy, Corsica and France, London 1955 , p. 6. 13 QuotedinMEAD (se e note 5) p. 107. 14 Ibid . p. 108. 15 Matthe w CRASKE, Art in Europe 1700-1830, Oxford 1997, p. 90. 544 T. C. W. Blanning

Later traveller s concurred . A s Georg e Ayscoug h recorded ; Whoever has seen Ho- garth 's famous print, has seen a true représentation of the gâtes of Calais, except that the old fish-women are infinitely more ugly, addin g to ail rules there are, doubtless, exceptions; but a Frenchman is, in gênerai, an unlettered préjudiced fop 16. Eve n som e English contemporarie s complaine d abou t th e xenophobia o f thei r fellow-country - men. In Hurd's imaginary dialogue between Locke and Shaftesbury, the latter laments:

You, who hâve been abroad in the world and hâve sojust a knowledge of other states and countries, tell me, if there can be any thing more ridiculous than the idiot PREJUDICES of our home-bred gentlemen; which shew themselves, whenever their own dear Island cornes, in any respect, to be the topic of conver- sation. What wondrous conceits of their ownprowess, wisdom, nay of their manners and politeness! With what disdain is a foreigner mentioned by them, and with what apparent signs of aversion is his very person treated! They scarcely give you leave to suppose that any virtuous quality can thrive out of their own air, or that good sensé can be expressed in anyforeign language. Nay, their fool- ish prepossession extends to their very soil and climate. Such warm patriots are they, such furious lovers of their country, that they will hâve it to be the théâtre of ail convenience, delight and beauty 17.

Yet it would be a mistake to write off all, or even the majority, of British grand tourists as dim-witted, xénophobie pleasure-seekers. Boswell certainly squandered a good deal of time - and money - on prostitutes, but he devoted a great deal more to visiting the classical sites and articulating his responses. In the same letter to Rousseau quoted fro m earlier, he wrote; The study of antiquities, ofpictures, of architecture, and ofthe other arts which are found in such great perfection at Rome occupied me in a wise and ele- gant manner. You must know that I hâve a great taste for virtù 18. Almos t every traveller of rank was accompanied by a tutor and employed a cicérone or bear-leader once the party reache d Italy . The very numerous volumes o f correspondence, diaries an d travel account s whic h hâv e survived , demonstrat e tha t intellectua l concern s wer e attended with an intensity and rigour which most present-day tourists of the same âge would find intolérable. O f cours e th e eighteent h Century English traveller s cam e equipped with a classical éducation and a habit of learning which hâve long since been abandoned. Consequently, the classical sites had a special relevance. No on e put thi s better than Joseph Spence, accompanying the Earl of Middlesex in 1732:

This is one ofthepleasures ofbeing at Rome, that you are continually seeing the very place and spot ofground where some great thing or other was done, which one has so often admired before in reading their history. This is the place where Julius Caesar was stabbed by Brutus; at thefoot ofthat statue he feil and gave

16 George Edward AYSCOUGH , Letters from a n officer i n the guards to his friend in England: containing some accounts of France and Italy, London 1778 , p. 10, 23. 17 HURD (se e note 10) p. 38-39. 18 BRADY (see not e 12) p. 6. The Grand Tour and the réception of neo-classicism 545

his last groan; hère stood Manlius to défend the Capitol against the Gauls; and there afterwards was he flung down that rock for endeavouring to make him- selfthe tyrant ofhis country 19.

The most celebrated visual représentation of English tourists engaged in aesthetic pur- suit i s of course Johann Zoffany' s »Th e Tribun a o f the Uffizi«, commissione d by Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, in 177220. Among others to be identified in this endlessl y debate d pictur e ar e Earl Cowper , Si r Horace Mann, Si r James Bruce , Lord Lewisham and the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. It is also a salutary reminder that the grand tourists were not only interested in classical antiquity but also paid much at- tention to the Renaissance. This i s evident from th e right-hand grou p o f Zoffany' s painting, where Thomas Patch, Horace Walpole's friend, appears to be comparing the classical group of maie wrestlers with Titian's >Venus of Urbino< (although it has been conjectured tha t this reveals more a sexual than an aesthetic préférence). These connoisseurs were not, of course, merely interested in observing, analysing, recording, or enjoying. They also wanted to possess. From the late seventeenth Cen - tury, when Si r Thomas Isham and the Earl of Exeter made major acquisitions , a constantly growing volume of artefacts old and new, genuine and fake, were purchased by British visitors. Many of them had the means to do so, with booming rent rolls at home and a very advantageou s exchang e rate abroad . Arthur Youn g estimate d lat e in the eighteenth Century that a man could live as well from £ 100 a year in Italy as from fiv e times that sum at home21. When Thomas Coke, later First Earl of Leicester, arrived in Italy in 1712 at the tender âg e of fourteen, he had a spendable income o f £ 10000, a colossal fortune by any standards. The great collection of antique sculpture and other classical artefacts which he formed with the assistance of the antiquarian Francesco de Ficorini, was given an appropriate architectura l settin g at Holkham Hal l in Nor- folk, which also revealed the patron's source of inspiration22. The architect was William Kent, who had spent ten years in Italy and had been brought back to England by the Earl of Burlington and who lodged at Burlington House in Piccadilly (now the site of the Royal Academy) from 1719 until his death in 174823. I might add that, such was his wealth, that Burlington took a retinue of fifteen with him on his Grand Tour which began i n 1714, including a painter (th e Frenchman Loui s Goupy) , a coachman, a groom, a cook, a book-keeper, sundry lackeys and his own bear-leader24. When he arrived back in Dover five years later, he brought with him 878 pièces of baggage25. The great wealth of ancient statuary to be found in British muséums and stately homes are, for the most part, souvenirs of the Grand Tour. In 1720 Edward Wright recorded that

19 Joseph SPENCE , Letter from the Grand Tour, ed. Slava Klima, Montreal, London 1975 , p. 115. 20 Se e Oliver MILLAR , Zoffan y an d his Tribuna, London, New York 1967, passim, although it does not contain a colour reproduction of the füll painting. 21 HIBBERT (see note 6) p. 24. 22 Hann s GROSS, Rome in the âge of Enlightenment. The post-Tridentine syndrome and the ancien régime, Cambridge 1990, p. 3. 23 David WATKIN, A history of western architecture, 2nd ed. London 1996 , p. 316. 24 de SETA (see note 8) p. 13. 25 HIBBERT (see note 6) p. 19. 546 T. C. W. Blanning

such was the craze for important artefact s that the Italian dealers had a saying: >Were our Amphithéâtre portable, the ENGLISH would carry it off< 26. Moreover, those stately homes themselves testify t o the enduring influence o f ex- posure to classical buildings and values. Such was the confidence of many of thèse aristocratie patrons that they feit well qualified t o tell their architects not just what the y wanted bu t how they wanted it . Indeed, prominent amon g those architect s was the Earl of Burlington himself, responsible for two o f the finest Palladian buildings to be erected i n the period - Chiswick House and the York Assembly Rooms. No les s an authority than the late Rudolf Wittkower commented: »Burlington must be assigned a décisive share in the development o f English neo-classicism, not only as a patron o f artists but mainl y a s a practising architect. Burlington was himself responsibl e for a number o f extraordinarily important building s an d use d hi s friend Willia m Ken t t o spread his architectural ideals« 27. The same sort o f bouquet could be handed to the grand tourists for their promo- tion o f classical scholarship, especially archaeology. Sir Joshua Reynolds lampoone d the gran d tourist s i n hi s satirica l group-portrai t » A parody o n Raphael' s Schoo l o f Athens«, in which he poked fun a t the British grand tourists he encountered in Rome in 1751, but he also painted a much more flattering group portrait o f the same breed in >The Society of Dilettanti< of 177S/79. The origin of the society was described in the préface o f Stuart and Revett's »Ionia n Antiquities« whose publication i n 1769 it had made possible: In the year 1734 some gentlemen who had traveïled in Italy, désirons of encouraging at home a taste for those objects which had contributed so much to their entertainment abroad, formed themselves into a society under the name of the Dilet- tantin and agreed upon such resolutions as they thought necessary to keep up the spirit ofthe scheme28. This was a highly aristocratie society, consisting mainly of young no- blemen recently returned fro m th e Grand Tour . The list o f members o f 1736 shows that almost ail were peers, sons of peers, baronets or knights. They included Sir Fran- cis Dashwood (late r Lord Despencer), the Earl o f Middlesex (later Duke o f Dorset), Viscount Harcourt, William Ponsonby (later Earl of Bessborough), Richard Grenville (later Earl Temple), and so on and so forth29. Horace Walpole, commented sourly in 1743 about the Dilettanti; the nominal qual- ification is having been in Italy, and the real one being drunk 30, bu t this verdict ma y hâve stemmed from his disappointment at never gaining admission to the society himself. It was certainly unfair. No doubt the Dilettanti did carouse merrily at their week- ly dinners, but they also engaged in serious, expensive and physically demanding scholarship. The Earl o f Sandwich, for example, returned in 1739 from a major expéditio n to Italy, Sicily, Greece, the Aegean Islands, Turkey and Egypt laden with mummies , papyri, medal s an d marbles . He ha d measure d th e principal Athenia n monuments ,

26 Edward WRIGHT , Som e observations mad e in travelling through France, Italy, etc. in the years 1720, 1721 and 1722, 2 vol., London 1730, 1, p. 7. 27 Rudolf WITTKOWER , Lord Burlington and William Kent, in: Archaeological Journal 102 (1945) p. 161. 28 Lionel CUST, Sidney COLVIN, History o f the Society of Dilettanti, London 1898 , p. 4. 29 Ibid . p. 5-13. 30 Ibid . p. 36. The Grand Tour and the réception o f neo-classicis m 547 then barel y know n i n th e West , an d ha d produce d creditabl e ground-plans 31. Ai l Dilettanti mad e a contribution b y financin g a number o f importan t expédition s t o Greece an d th e Easter n Mediterranean , th e most celebrate d bein g James Stuar t an d Nicholas Revett's great séries of volumes »Athenian Antiquities«, the first volume of which was published in 1762. In the words of the most authoritative of modem histo- rians of neo-classicism in Great Britain, Joseph Mordaunt Crook, the Society of Dilet- tanti »completel y transforme d th e study of Gree k antiquities« , adding : »I n man y ways the history o f the Dilettanti Society is the history o f neo-classicism in England. First it was Roman. Then it was Greek. Then it was Graeco-Roman. And in ail three phases its success was based on the labours of learned amateurs«32. So rieh was the So- ciety that by the end of the eighteenth Century it had a running annual surplus of some £1000033. Whatever view one takes of British Grand Tourists in gênerai and the Dilettanti in particular, the relationship between the sojourn in the south and the réception of neo- classicism seems relatively unproblematic. However, the account presented so far is in- adéquate because it fails to take account o f the presuppositions o f the travellers an d the uses to which they put their foreign expériences . Neo-classicism i n Great Britai n was never solely an aesthetic movement. It also had a social, cultural and political agenda. A figure o f central importance in this regard was Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl o f Shaftesbury , th e single most important intellectua l influenc e o n the development of British neo-classicism. Shaftesbury ha d embarked on his own Grand Tour in 1686 at the tender âge of thirteen, never lost his enthusiasm for the antique and indeed died in Naples in 1711, but he used his knowledge o f classical civilisation to pursue a domestic agenda. This was nothing less than the légitimation o f the post-1688 Whig regime. The Glorious Revolution had ushered in an era of gentlemanly rule and gen - tlemanly culture and it was this which he sought to explicate. A free State, he held, was both supported by and helped to create a true culture. Writing during the War of the Spanish Succession , whe n th e worl d was once mor e threatene d wit h a Universal Monarchy, andanew Abyss of Ignorance and Superstition34, Shaftesbury was especially sensitive to the interaction betwee n political and cultural achievement. In particular , he was convinced that public virtue could not exist under an absolutist System:

A PL rBLICK Spirit can corne onlyfrom a social Feeling or Sense of Partnership with Human Kind. Now there are none sofarfrom being Partners in this Sense, or Sharers in this common Affection, as they who scarcely know an Equal, nor consider themselves as subject to any Law of Fellowship or Community. And thus Morality and good Government go together. There is no real Love of

31 J. Mordaunt CROOK, The Greek revival. Neo-classical attitudes in British architecture 1760-1870, Lon- don 1972 , p. 7. 32 Ibid . p. 6-7. 33 John BREWER, The pleasures of the imagination. English culture in the eighteenth Century, London 1997, p. 260. 34 Anthony Ashley COOPER, Third Earl of SHAFTESBURY, Soliloquy: or advice to an author, London 1710, p. 64. 548 T. C. W. Blanning

Virtue, without Knowledge of Publick Good. And where Absolute Power is, there is no PUBLICE?5.

In a later essay he went further, arguin g that absolutism also precluded patriotism, of ail émotions the noblest and most becoming human Nature3*3. In a polity whose sub- jects were held together only by force, there could be no true sensé of community, fo r Absolute Power annuls the Publick. And where there is no Publick, or Constitution, there is in reality no Mother-COUNTRY, or NATION37. Althoug h Shaftesbury was a Deist who had moved beyond Protestantism, he stressed that England's fortunes had only taken a turn for the better at the Reformation. Under Henry VII, in his opinion, England had been little better than Poland, wracked by civil strife an d subject to the priests at home and the Pope abroad 38. But there was still a long way to go. He wa s under no illusions about the current state of the créative arts in England, still very much in their infancy; They hâve hitherto scarce arriv'd to any thing of Shapeliness or [sic] Person. They lisp as in their Cradles: and their Stammering Tongues, which nothing but their Youth and Rawness can excuse, hâve hitherto spoken in wretched Pun and Quib- ble39. Indeed , Shaftesbury was too much th e urban aristocra t to appreciate eve n th e great names o f Elizabethan an d Jacobean drama . Shakespeare, Jonson, Fletcher an d Milton, he conceded, had asserted Poetick Liberty b y discarding the horrid Discord of jingling Rhyme, bu t they were very much diamonds in the rough 40. In this last respect, he anticipated Frederick the Great's notorious critique of Ger - man literature41, also feeling that, like Moses, he had been allowed to see the promised land from afa r but was to be denied entry. For Shaftesbury ha d no time for the supe- rior polish o f Louis XIV's classicism. Certainly the French had taken far more trou- ble to seek correct proportions an d stylistic grâce and had been particularly success - ful in raising their Stage to as great Perfection, as the Genius of their Nation will per- mit. But their best efforts were foiled inevitably by their fundamentally flawe d political structure: the high Spirit ofTragedy can ill subsist where the Spirit of Liberty is want- ing42. Tha t was the lesso n taugh t b y th e fat e o f th e Romans : n o soone r ha d the y emerged from barbaris m under the tutelage o f the Greeks than they began to subju - gate the rest o f the world, thus condemning their culture to décadence. Shaftesbur y might well hâve used that cautionary taie to signal the dangers o f British imperial ex- pansion, but he trusted in liberty to serve as an antidote to over-vaulting ambition :

35 Anthony Ashley COOPER, Third Earl of SHAFTESBURY , Sensus communis; an Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour, in: Characteristicks o f Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, 3 vol., 2nd ed. Londo n 1724 , I, p. 106-107. 36 Miscellaneous Reflections, ibid. II, p. 143. 37 Ibid . 38 Ibid . p.150-151. 39 SHAFTESBURY (se e note 34) p. 63. See also SHAFTESBURY, A Letter sent from Italy , with the Notion o f the Judgment of Hercules etc., in: Letters of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Author of the Characteristicks col- lected into one volume, London 1746 , p. 106-111. 40 Ibid . p. 64. 41 De la littérature allemande (1780). 42 SHAFTESBURY (se e not e 34) p. 65. The Grand Tour and the réception o f neo-classicis m 549

We are now in an Age when LIBERTY is once again in its Ascendant. And we are ourselves the happy Nation, who not only enjoy it at home, but by our Great- ness and Power give Life and Vigour to it abroad; and are the Head and Chief of the EUROPEAN League, founded on this common Cause. Nor is it to be fear'd that we shou'dlose this noble Ardour, orfaint under the glorious Toil; tho, like antient GREECE, we shou'd for successive Ages be contending with afor- eign Power, and endeavouring to reduce the Exorbitancy ofa Grand Monarch43.

Very few o f Shaftesbury's fellow-gran d tourist s shared his sophisticated intellect, but most, if not all, of them were keen to make a distinction between the glories of classical Rome and the décadence o f its papal successor. Significantly, on e o f the very fe w encomiums of modem Rome stemmed from a Catholic récusant, Edmund Warcupp, who wrote of Rome:

Being at this day the Queen of Cities, the Flower of Italy, and as one may say the Epitome ofthe whole Earth. She is the Lodging for ail Nations, The théâtre ofthe best Ingenuities ofthe World, the Habitation of vertue, of Empire, ofDig- nity, of Fortune, The Native Countrey of the Laws, And of ail People deriva- tively, the Fountain of Instruction, the Head of Religion, the Rule of Justice, and finally the Original of infinite blessings, although the Hereticks, Enemies ofthe truth will not confess it, as this Author ispleased to term those ofthe Reformed Religion44.

He was in a very small minority. As Francis Haskell observed, most Britons came »to admire the past and scorn the présent«45. Whether it was Deism in the case of Shaftes - bury, or Protestantism in the case of most o f his fellow-countrymen, the y ail arrived in Italy, and more especially in Rome, knowing what they were going to find: a déca- dent présent to highlight the splendour of the ancient ruins. In Joseph Addison's cou- plet:

Where the old Romans deathless Acts display'd, Their base degen'rate Progeny upbraid 46...

Horace Walpole wrote home from Rome in 1740: / am very glad that I see Rome while it yet exists; before a great number ofyears are elapsed, I question whether it will be worth seeing. Between the ignorance andpoverty ofthe présent Romans, everything is neglected andfalling to decay, the villas are entirely out of repair, and the palaces so ill

43 Ibid . p. 69. 44 Edmun d WARCUPP, Italy, in its original glory, ruine and revival. Being an exact survey of the whole ge- ography and history o f that famous country; with the adjacent island s of Sicily, Malta etc. and whatever is remarkable in Rome, The Mistress of the World And ai l those towns and teritories mentioned i n antient and modem authors, London 1660 , p. 146. 45 Francis HASKELL, Préface, in: Wilton and Bignamini (see note 4) p. 10. 46 Joseph ADDISON, A Letter from Italy , to the Right Honourable Charles, Lord Halifax , London 1709 , p. 6. 550 T. C. W. Blanning kept that half the pictures are spoiled by damp 47. Georg e Ayscough found some of the Roman remains tolerable perfect and beautiful bu t his enthusiasm was dampened by the recollection that this city, which was once inhabited by a nation ofheroes andpa- triots, was now in the hands ofthe most effeminate and most superstitionspeople in the universe48. This kind of observation could be repeated ad nauseam. Especially after the War of th e Spanis h Successio n ha d bee n won an d th e threa t o f a French universal monarchy had been banished, the British could afford to be more assertive about their own virtue s an d th e décadence o f th e continentals. The tone became more strident , more xénophobie. One furthe r exampl e must suffice , writte n b y Joseph Spence , accompanying the Earl o f Middlesex. He reported t o his mother about the use o f cas- trati in opéra and how much like women they looked, adding:

This is not so great a wonder among the modem Romans, as it would hâve been among the ancient ones. They are now in gênerai effeminated to the last degree: and that roughness and courage that formerly made them masters of ail the world is sunk into such a softness and indolence, that I verily believe they could not now défend their own city againstfive hundred good old battered soldiers - unless the prayers of the priests should be sufficient to save themselves and the laity49.

Corning from a rapidly expanding and prosperous economy, the British visitors were quick to criticise both the gênerai level of poverty and the stark contrast between the conspicuous consumptio n o f a tiny élit e and th e abjec t destitutio n o f the masses: »I think no city in its gênerai appearance can unité more magnificence an d poverty than this; as adjoining th e most superb palaces, we se e the meanest habitations; and tem - ples, the boasted Ornaments of antiquity, choked up by sheds and cottages«50. An especially populär symbol of Rome's fall from grâc e was the fate of the Forum, once the centre of a world empire and now the grazing-place o f cattle:

How grand the appearance when the whole was extant! How correspondent to the majesty ofthe Roman peoplef But, alas, this volley, which was the most hon- orable part of ancient Rome (the capitol excepted) is now the most vile. Hère, where not only the ambassadors ofpowerful monarchs, but even they themselves hâve sue d for protection: where the decrees of populär assemblies hâve decided the fate of nations; and in short, where every thing ofthe greatest moment was transacted, is now heard the lowing ofoxen. The Forum Romanum is the Smith-

47 Andre a KIRBY (ed.), From St . James's to St. Peter's: Horace Walpole's an d Thomas Gray's letter fro m the Grand Tour 1739-1741, London 1997 , p. 20. 48 AYSCOUGH (see not e 16) p. 140. 49 SPENCE (see note 19) p. 342-343. For other examples of hostility to modem Italians, see Jeremy BLACK , The British abroad. The Grand Tour in the eighteenth Century, Stroud 1992, p. 50,241; MEAD (see note 5) p. 112, 270; HIBBERT (se e note 6) p. 104-106,113,135,165. 50 Thomas WATKINS, Travels through Swisserland [sic] , Italy, Sicily, the Greek Islands to Constantinople; through part o f Greece, Ragusa, and the Dalmatian Isle s in the years 1787, 1788, 1789, 2 vol., London 1792,1, p. 323. The Grand Tour an d the réception o f neo-classicis m 551

field of modem Rome, and the watts of those sacred édifices, which were more revered than any earthly object, are constantly polluted by the dung ofcattle 51.

Yet even as they gloried in their sensé of superiority a t the sight of the décadent Ro- mans languishing in poverty, the British were thinking more of their own country and the paramountcy of liberty. Why were modem Italians so poor in the midst of so much natural blessing, asked Joseph Addison? The answer was of course political:

But what avail her unexhausted Stores, In blooming Mountains, and her sunny Shores, With all the Gifts that Heaven and Earth impart, The Smiles of Nature, and her Charms of Art; While proud Oppression in the Valleys reigns, And Tyranny usurps her happy Plains? 52.

So the lesson he derived from hi s travels through Ital y was to cherish British liberty even more:

We envy not the warmer Clime that lies In ten degrees of more indulgent Skies; Nor at the Courseness ofour Heav'n répine, Thoughy o'er our Heads the frozen Pilads shine: 'Tis Liberty that Crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren Rocks, and her bleak Mountain smile 53...

This équation could also counsel restraint. Just as Rome and Rome's heir, Venice, had been corrupted by aristocracy and luxury, so could Venice's successor as the commer- cial and cultural capital o f the world - Great Britain - be laid low in its turn. Writing about the fate of the Romans and their villas, Robert Morris pointed a warning finge r to his fellow-countrymen: »perhap s too fatigate d wit h too grea t an Excess o f Indo - lence, and ennervated by Luxury ... they lost their Liberty. Then their noble Palaces, their magnificen t an d beautifu l Villas , their deliciou s Situation s wer e wrested fro m them, and at length the whole Empire became a seat of wild désolation«54. Rare, however, was the observer who could se e past présent triumphalism to future décadence . Most grand tourist s returne d home , laden with purchases an d greatl y reinforce d i n their self-confidence : »I leave the bella Italia withou t a sigh, and th e vasty fiel d o f France without regret, in order to hasten to the only région in the universe which can be said to be the résidence of Liberty« 55.

51 Ibid . p.373-374. 52 ADDISO N (see note 46) p. 6-7. 53 Ibid . p. 7. 54 Quote d i n Adria n VO N BUTTLAR, Der englisch e Landsit z 1715-1760 . Symbol eines liberale n Welt - entwurfs, Mittenwald 1982 , p. 127. 55 AYSCOUG H (se e note 16) p. 231. 552 T. C. W. Blanning

In conclusion, a comment on the concept of Kulturtransfer, which has corne to the fore in th e récen t historiograph y o f internationa l cultura l relations , i s appropriate . Jo- hannes Paulmann has defined Kulturtransfer as »the transference o f ideas, goods and institutions fro m on e specific System o f societa l relations an d meaning patterns int o another«56. It is underpinned b y the acceptance o f a clear démarcation between what is transferred an d the agent who does the transferring, as the transferred ite m must be perceived a s belonging to the other rather than the self. The réception o f neo-classicism, aided and abetted by the Grand Tour, certainly fits this pattern very well. How- ever, it does not fit Paulmann's chronologica l scheme . He went on to argue that th e long nineteenth Century was the obvious period of Kulturtransfer, because it was char- acterised by the émergence o f discrète national units. As so often, the post-dating o f the development o f nationalism in Europe gets in the way. The English certainly, and the British probably, had a clear sensé o f national identity long before the long nineteenth Century. Indeed, médiéva l historian s such as James Campbel l an d Patric k Wormald push it back to the first millenniu m AD 57. Their expériences on the Gran d Tour only served to intensify tha t identity.

56 Johanne s PAULMANN , Internationaler Vergleich und interkultureller Transfer. Zwei Forschungsansätz e zur europäischen Geschicht e des 18 . bis 20. Jahrhunderts, Neue Historische Literatur, in: Historische Zeitschrift 26 7 (1998) p. 662. 57 Patric k WORMALD, Engla Lond: the making of an allegiance, in: Journal of Historical Sociology 7 (1994) p. 18 ; Adrian HASTINGS , The construction of nationhood. Ethnicity , religion and nationalism, Cam - bridge 1997, p. 36.1 have discussed this issue in greater detail in my book: The culture of power and the power o f culture. Old regifn e Europe 1660-1789, Oxford 2002 , part III, eh. 2.